Kiss Her Once for Me – Alison Cochrun

Publisher: Atria Books

Date of Publication: November 1st, 2022

Page Count: 368

From the Jacket:

The author of The Charm Offensive returns with a festive romantic comedy about a woman who fakes an engagement with her landlord…only to fall for his sister.

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money.

Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.

Rating:

Steam: 🔥🔥

“Was is possible to have a hole inside you, cookie-cuttered into the shape of a person you hadn’t met yet? Because that’s how it felt when I talked to Jack. We’re nothing alike and everything alike..”

Looking for the perfect holiday rom com? Look no further! I have read a lot of queer holiday rom coms this year, but Kiss Her Once For Me, has taken the top spot. I feel like I could go on for days and days about how much I adored this one, but Instagram (this review was initially written for Instagram) is not a place where wordy, long-winded people thrive. So here is a bullet list style review (which will still somehow be too long) of some of the tropes you can except and some of my favorite aspects: 

– butch lesbian baker meets disaster bisexual artist (who then spends a lot of time lusting over said baker as she chops wood and smells like bread)

– a unique spin on fake dating/marriage of convenience 

– second chance, sapphic romance 

– a love trapezoid 

– realistic family dysfunction with HEALTHY BOUNDARY SETTING (this is my love language) 

– holiday hijinks galore

– the single best impromptu karaoke session to the single best song, Celine Dion’s, It’s All Coming Back to Me Now (I dare you to find a better song)

– Portland, Oregon setting complete with a Powell’s Books meet-cute 

– the loveliest, booziest, most meddling grandmas 

– all the found family vibes 

– fantastic banter (I lost track of the number of times I LOL’d)

– anxiety and AHDH rep

Kiss Her Once for Me is written in dueling timelines, flashing back to show Ellie & Jack’s romantic past through episodes of a webcomic created by Ellie. I absolutely loved this and thought it was such a clever way to weave in their history throughout the second chance aspect of the story. Thanks so much to Atria for sending me this beautiful finished copy! I so hope you’ll pick this one up!